“Come on. Talk to me, Dashie.”

Rainbow Dash simply lay next to Pinkie Pie, staring up blankly at the ceiling. Her face was devoid of expression, and she just quietly kept breathing at the same pace. She could tell that she wasn’t asleep, though; her eyes seemed almost plastered open, and her stare didn’t leave the ceiling.

“Please, Dashie?” Pinkie attempted to nuzzle her playfully. Rainbow Dash furrowed her brows slowly, turning away and trying to hide a pained look. “Come on, Dashie. I know something’s wrong. You always wanna do it.”

Just remember; I’ll know if your tongue slips, and mine just might, too.

Dash silently pulled the sheets up over her shoulders and turned to stare at the wall instead.

“Not tonight, Pinkie Pie.”

“Te~ell me~e,” Pinkie whispered in a singsong tone, even though with the house still empty she really had no need to whisper. “Come on, please? You know you can trust ol’ Pinkie Pie, no matter what it is.”

“… Just gonna get a shower,” Rainbow Dash mumbled, slipping away from her grasp.

“Again?” Pinkie sat up, watching her. “I think you were pretty clean by the third one, Dash.”

The pegasus didn’t answer, only wordlessly closing the bedroom door behind her and leaving a rather forlorn Pinkie Pie sitting all alone.

She didn’t know quite how long the water ran, but after a while it eventually grew uncomfortably cold. Not that Dash could really feel it, either way.

Rainbow Dash closed her eyes, letting the water rush over her head and drain down her. The sound of running water could almost drown out her thoughts. It could almost wash away the dirty feeling that seemed to cling to her like a barbed spider’s web. It could almost make her forget the spell that Egg White had placed over her, ensuring that he would always know if she tried to tell anypony the truth.

She held herself a little tighter, as if she could wring out the bitterness as she sat there. Dash couldn’t even bring herself to cry properly anymore; or maybe she could, but couldn’t really tell with the water running over her face.

Rainbow Dash didn’t know who she hated more right then; the wretched doctor, or herself for not telling Pinkie Pie when it was so obviously hurting her.

As it turned out, Dash really could tell when she began crying again.

She hardly even noticed a while afterwards when Pinkie Pie shut off the water. Dash was completely in a mental fog by the point Pinkie silently helped dry her off and get her to bed.

“What do you mean, another two whole weeks?”

William stared at the pair in confusion. The chocolate colored unicorn simply repeated himself, which did absolutely nothing to assuage Rainbow Dash’s look of absolute horror. In fact, it probably only made it worse.

“Well, yes,” Egg White stated matter of factly. “It’s only for a short period of time; at least, until we can ensure that the bones have been properly reset.”

“In other words, I’m still not allowed leave, completely in opposition to previous statements.” William glowered at the doctor, who only shrugged. William shifted in the wheelchair, uncomfortable with the design. He wished that he could have been given crutches or something of the sort, so that he could at least walk; however, it was likely that his leg would only cause him troubles again.

Rainbow Dash seemed to be at a loss for words, but couldn’t find it in herself to speak.

“It’s really just routine,” Dr. White rolled his eyes. He patted Rainbow Dash overly cheerfully on the shoulder before starting off. “I’m sure you understand.”

Dash seemed to undergo a series of bizarre transformations as he walked away. Her face contorted at his back, through fury and loathing, around to an oddly fearful cringing bitterness until her left eye began twitching. Her nostrils flared furiously, and she continuously looked back and forth from William to the doctor as he walked away.

“… Mother, you appear to be suffering from a stroke. Should I fetch assistance?”

Rainbow Dash slowly shook her head, biting her lip.

“You-you stay here, William,” she replied lowly, and her voice was nearly cracking. “I-I need Pinkie.”

“I thought you said that she was at Sugarcube Corner this time of morning?” he asked curiously, but she only shook her head again before taking off at a quick pace. William was left sitting to stew in in own befuddlement for a moment.

He frowned hard, drumming his fingers over the rubber wheels and pulling himself into the hall. Rainbow Dash had hardly had any time at all for him, and such a short time after she had finally come back – William had been disappointed enough when she had quietly slipped away in the night, even after she promised that she would stay.

William was then brought to an ultimatum; Rainbow Dash was still in sight, and he could probably catch up to her, regardless of how quickly she was trotting…

But then again, William had quite a few questions for Dr. White – however, doing so would most definitely leave him incapable of catching up to Rainbow Dash in time before she left him alone again. Torn, William finally made his decision.

With a grim determination, William forcefully turned the wheelchair away from the pegasus and began slowly wheeling himself toward the doctor. He started off gradually, struggling to pick up speed as he wheeled over the linoleum. Spotting a flight of stairs at the end of the wing, William desperately called out for fear that he wouldn’t catch up in time.

“Hey – hey!” William yelped, his arms already burning as he gained ground. Egg White seemed relatively surprised, slowly slightly to turn his head with a cocked eyebrow. The moment the doctor laid eyes on him, he let out a quiet grunt of agitation.

“Oh, you. Shouldn’t you be back with your mommy?” he asked disdainfully, not bothering to slow down for the boy. William struggled to keep up, painfully nicking his fingers in the wheels in the process.

“Actually, sir,” he frowned. “I would most certainly like to personally see the company’s policy on extended stay.”

“I would most certainly like to personally see you go back to your room,” White replied impatiently through his teeth. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to wind up late.”

He trotted a little faster, and William angrily yanked at his white coat. The doctor jerked it away from him, whirling on the spot.

“If you don’t mind, sir,” William retorted as he matched his scowl. “Where exactly is the proof of medical benefits ascertaining to prolonged stay, aside from heightening the hospital bill?”

“None of your business,” Egg White snapped, and William was dismayed to see that the flight of stairs had no way for him to descend to the first floor. Why couldn’t have the doctor have gone in the opposite direction with the ramps?

“It is my business!” he demanded, yanking on the doctor’s coat again, only to have his hand quickly slapped away. “For god’s sake, man, how is this logical?”

“Look,” White jammed a hoof in William’s face, who suddenly felt much smaller as the outraged doctor glowered over him. “Look, you selfish little brat. I deal with runts like you day in and day out. I’ve seen more busted bones than you’ve seen days! I know what I’m talking about, so just shut up and go sit down before you break something else.”

“Can’t you see that she’s upset?” William desperately threw his arm out back toward the direction that Rainbow Dash had left in, long gone by this point. “I’m not insisting for my sake, it’s because you’ve obviously upset Mother, you doddering oaf!”

Egg White huffed through his nose, and immediately said “Yeah, whatever. Your ‘mommy’ was already messed up in the head.”

“No she isn’t!” William shouted in his face, which only seemed to amuse the doctor. Every single word out of the pony’s mouth only managed to infuriate William further – not insomuch that White nearly seemed deliberately antagonistic, but that he was so completely sure of himself when he told William off.

“Yeah, she is,” he taunted him smugly. “I have everything about her on file, I am best informed on her mental state, and I know when I’m looking at a slut.”

“You – shut up!” William clapped his hands over his ears. “No she isn’t, no she isn’t!”

“Oh, yeah?” Egg White smirked upon seeing William almost pulling his ears off from the sheer distress. “I don’t even need the files, I know she’s a total slut because she was begging me to nail her."

“Liar!” William was struggling to pull himself from his chair to no avail. “Stop it, just stop it!”

“Oh, she was begging,” he taunted him, getting in William’s face and blatantly enjoying just how much his bragging was knocking down William’s ego and finally putting him in his place. “She was moaning, she was begging, and I fucked your mom so hard that she cried.”

William was finally at a loss for words as the doctor pulled his head away from him, the smug look etched onto his face as if it had been chiseled on. William was oblivious to this, however; the only thing burning in him was that the arrogant pony had made his mother cry.

He made her cry.

He made his mother cry.

“Like a bitch.”

And those three words were the nails in the coffin.

William was not a necessarily strong boy.

He was relatively small for someone his age. As such, William normally would have had enough difficulty as it was. On the other hand, Egg White was not expecting for the child to ram into him with the wheelchair as hard as he could, knocking him off balance.

Time seemed to slow down for the both of them in that one instant.

For William, it was a single moment of pure, blind, unadulterated rage in which physical reaction was the only outlet for his hatred.

For Egg White, it was only a moment of dull surprise in which he was pushed from his footing at the top of the stairs. William even watched him fall, White’s eyes widening as he slipped.

Egg White didn’t even have time to shout as he tumbled down the stairs.

William could do nothing but watch as Egg White flailed for something to hold onto in his panic for the only second that he had; in the next, he had already picked up too much momentum and crashed down the stairs, hitting a great number of them on the way down.

He simply sat dimly shocked at the top of the stairs down at the still and unmoving pony, who’s limbs jutted out at odd angles.

William sometimes liked to pretend that he didn’t really hear it when his neck snapped.

“Whoa – what’s going on here?” Scootaloo asked as a team of medical ponies gradually pushed past her down the hall of the hospital, wheeling a sheet covered gurney.

“It’s a hospital, doofus,” Apple Bloom snickered.

“Beat me to the punch,” Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes.

“There was an accident,” one of the mares nodded to her. “One of our own orthodontists, if you believe it.”

“Orthopedist, Candy,” another of the ponies corrected her as they hurried away. The three of them heard the medical ponies talking as they wheeled the gurney away; and from the speed they were going, it didn’t take them long to figure out the reason that they weren’t in a rush.

“Bleh,” Apple Bloom wrinkled her nose as they approached William’s room. She could hear what sounded like Pinkie Pie as they drew closer, but couldn’t make out what she was saying. “Think he was dead?”

“You get three guesses,” Sweetie Belle grinned.

“Creeps me out,” Apple Bloom muttered, staring after the other ponies even after they were gone.

“What does?” Scootaloo knocked eagerly on the wooden door, raising her eyebrow. “A dead pony? It’s a hostpital, doofus.”

“Har-de-har,” the filly frowned and shivered. “I know that. But, still. Dead. Huh-buh-buhbuhbuh.”

Scootaloo’s knocking was swiftly interrupted when the door was yanked open. Much to her surprise, a very upset Pinkie Pie, partially coated in flour through her disheveled mane, stood blocking her vision.

“Hiya, Pinkie Pie!” Scootaloo chirruped, followed by her friends. “We –”

“Not right now,” Pinkie Pie replied hoarsely. And with that, she closed the door in her face.

Scootaloo was thoroughly stunned by the reaction – although, not too stunned to miss the rather shaken looking William sitting with a deadened expression next to a heavily weeping Rainbow Dash.

Scootaloo shrugged, looking back to Sweetie and Apple Bloom.

“… Well, that was weird.”

Journal of William Zachariah Klaskovsky

Day 28 –

I don’t

Monster

Don’t deserve

I can’t really

Murderer

They were right

Monster

Monster

I protected Mother.